Date: Mon, 21 Aug 1995 09:30:12 -0700
From: Nicaragua Network <nicanet@igc.apc.org>
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Subject: nicanews, vol.3, no. 34
Cc: cispesfresno@igc.apc.org, claire@athena.mit.edu, gjulian@igc.apc.org,
        mknolldc@igc.apc.org, rachel.wellner@dartmouth.edu
Status: O

                        Nicaragua News Service
                          August 13-19, 1995
                            Vol. 3, No. 34
                         by Coleen Littlejohn
 
Major news stories for the week:
 
1. More church bombings, suspects arrested. 
2. DEA opens office in Managua.
3. Supreme Court: first ruling on Constitutional amendments.
4. "Los Gauchos" restaurant still in hands of workers despite 
    government decree.
5. Former military officer freed in La Costena case.
6. Police chief murdered in Region VI.
7. More on Aviateca accident.
8. Nicaragua: three points lower on UN scale.
9. Pedro Ortega Macho returns to Managua.
_________________________________
 
1. More church bombings; suspects arrested.
 
Last week the National police arrested a man suspected to be the head 
of a terrorist band that has been placing dynamite bombs in churches 
in Leon and Managua and most recently last week on a Catholic school 
in Managua. The suspect is Ramiro Jose Torrez Salgado, 33 years old, 
who was captured in the Subtiava neighborhood of Leon. Torrez insists 
that he is a fisherman and that the dynamite is used for fishing.  At 
this time, the police are accusing of terrorism anyone caught with 
dynamite in their homes, but those arrested, some who are ex-military 
state that the material found is that left over from their military 
days.  
 
Meanwhile, the police are doing what they can, despite the lack of 
resources, to continue to investigate the case.  A special budget was 
to have been made available to assist the investigation, but only 30% 
has been disbursed. (Barricada, August 19)
 
2.  DEA opens office in Managua
 
The United States government, answering a request from the Nicaraguan 
government, has decided to open an office of the Drug Enforcement 
Agency in Managua. The president of the Justice Commission of the 
Nicaraguan National Assembly, Dr. Danilo Aguirre, declared yesterday 
that the President's permission given to open a DEA office in 
Nicaragua is unconstitutional and "very dangerous" and that the 
President can not authorize the functioning of an organization that 
would be exempt from Nicaragua's Constitution.
 
According to General Joaquin Cuadra, head of the Nicaraguan army, the 
office of the DEA in Managua will be for "interchanging information," 
and not for carrying out operations.  The General explained that the 
Nicaraguan authorities are the only ones who are legally authorized to 
organize operations against  drug traffickers. (Barricada, August 17, 
18, La Prensa, August 15)
 
3.  Supreme Court: first ruling on Constitutional amendments.


The Nicaraguan Supreme Court ruled that present mayors and town 
councilmembers who were elected indirectly by their Town Councils in 
the 1990 elections do not have to resign one year earlier in order to 
run again for public office.  
 
The practical application of this ruling will mean that the mayor of 
Managua will be able to continue in his job while he runs for 
president.
 
The Supreme Court has still not decided if it will hear the cases of 
the appeals by 25 Ministers and Vice Ministers of the government who 
state that their rights are violated by being forced to resign one 
year ahead if they too wish to run for public office. (Barricada, 
August 19)
 
4. "Los Gauchos" restaurant still in hands of workers despite 
     government decree
 
After having been closed for seven days because of pressure from the 
government agency CORNAP which is in charge of the privatization 
process, and former owner Alberto Bermudez Somoza, "Los Gauchos" 
restaurant, property of the restaurant workers, opened again for 
service to the public.   
 
Two weeks ago, 17 of the restaurant workers accepted a cash payment of 
$2,300 from the former owner and from the CORNAP who pressured them 
with the argument that if they didn't accept the money they would not 
get anything since Bermudez Somoza was a US citizen now and the 
government was going to give him back his restaurant. Seven of the 
workers did not receive any money and Armando Ruiz, administrator of 
"Los Gauchos" stated that the workers who did receive the money did 
not sign any legal document that states that they are selling their 
stock in the firm to Bermudez Somoza.  The seventeen workers are back 
to work as normal.  
 
Last week Bermudez Somoza tried to take possession of the restaurant 
but the seven remaining workers with their legal advisor, Dr. Adrian 
Meza, took over the installations and refused access to the site.
 
Bermudez Somoza was confiscated under the Laws 3 and 38 of 1979 which 
confiscated Somocistas and many others who got rich off the Somoza 
regime.  During the Concertation agreements of 1991-1992 the 
Nicaraguan government agreed to sell the restaurant to the workers, 
who have managed the business very successfully since 1990.
 
Stated Ruiz:  "Those of CORNAP, in order to satisfy North American and 
Somocista interests, don't care that they would be condemning our 
families to unemployment, labor instability and misery."  The workers 
are now suing CORNAP and Bermudez Somoza. (Barricada,  August 17)
 
5.  Former military officer freed in La Costena case.
 
Jorge Guerrero Gomez, also known as the "El Cuevo," last week was 
declared innocent for lack of proof on charges that he was related to 
the events involving the hijacking of a local airplane, later found in 

Colombia, and the murder of its pilot also in Colombia. Guerrero was 
chief of security for former President Daniel Ortega during the 
Sandinista government.
 
Present national police chief, Fernando Caldera was outraged at the 
judge's decision but stated that he had no alternative but to release 
the prisoner.  Caldera said, however, that there had been at least 
enough evidence to keep the case open and not release Guerrero for 
good.
 
Interestingly enough, the public prosecutor who brought the case 
against Guerrero stated that she was in agreement with the decision 
because  there had been no proof on which to condemn the suspect.  She 
was overruled, however, by the Attorney General who stated that the 
decision would be appealed in the Appeals Court.  The Attorney General 
stated that he did not think any political or other type of pressure 
had been applied to the judge but that at times judges "make 
mistakes."
 
Supreme Court Justice Alma criticized Caldera's statement as 
inappropriate saying as the Nicaraguan saying goes, "Shoemakers should 
stick to their shoes."
 
Meanwhile, in Colombia, this case of hijacking and murder, though 
headline material in Nicaragua, is just one more of hundreds of 
similar cases and the investigation continues accordingly. The 
Nicaraguan Ambassador in Colombia, Dr. Ernesto Salmeron, former 
Minister of Health, is trying to get the plane flown back to its 
owners, the La Costena airlines, in Managua. (La Prensa,  August 17, 
Barricada, August 18)
 
6. Police chief murdered in Region VI.
 
In Nicaragua violence continues to rule rural northern communities.  
The police chief of the municipality of Esquipulas, Matagalpa, Captain 
Juan Martinez Ruiz, was murdered last week by unknown elements five 
miles south of town.  It is suspected that the police chief was 
killed by a group of delinquents that had escaped from jail last 
week in the town of Waslala.
 
About five miles before Martinez reached the ambush site, a person on 
motorcycle had warned the police chief that a group of men was waiting 
for him but apparently Martinez ignored the warning.  
 
Area police have organized a campaign to track down these murderers 
and others that escaped from Waslala. (La Prensa,  August 17, 
Barricada, August 18)) 
 
7.  More on Aviateca accident.
 
The Salvadoran authorities have still not recovered one of the "black 
boxes" that will help in answering the question of why the flight 
number 901 crashed into the volcano, instantly killing 65 people, 
including 16 Nicaraguans.  If the box had not not been found by the 
end of last week, the Salvadoran police were to press charges against  
local campesinos who were the first to arrive at the scene of the 

disaster to steal jewelry and luggage from the accident victims.
 
Representatives of US legal firms and local attorneys are looking 
for clients to file a major law suit against AVIATECA in the US, where 
the flight originated.  At the same time, AVIATECA is studying each 
victim's economic and professional profile to calculate what they will 
offer each family for compensation.  They hope the case will be tried 
in El Salvador where the compensations ordered would be much less than 
those granted by US courts.
 
Meanwhile, the broader question of passenger security in Central 
America is being raised here in Nicaragua, especially by the National 
Assembly.  William Ramirez, former Minister of Transportation under 
the Sandinista government, is now president of the Transportation and 
Communication Committee in the National Assembly. He maintains that 
the Ministry of Transportation has a tape recording of the AVIATECA 
pilot saying that something was wrong with the plane.  The government 
denies having such a tape.  
 
Ramirez's commission is starting to ask some hard questions about the 
extent to which the government really regulates the running of 
airlines in Nicaragua.  Most of the Central American airlines are 
owned by a consortium controlled by TACA airlines whose major stock 
holder is the vice-president of El Salvador, Enrique Borgo Bustamente. 
(El Nuevo Diario, August 17, 18)
 
8.  Nicaragua: three points lower on UN scale.
 
Nicaragua is now 109 in a ranking of 1-174 countries analyzed in the 
UNDP (United Nations Development Fund) annual "Index of Human 
Development." Last year Nicaragua had been in position number 106 on a 
scale that measures basically three factors:  life expectancy, 
educational levels and real GNP. Nicaraguan statistics related to these 
three factors are the following, according to the UN report:
 
        Life Expectancy:        66.7 years 
        Literary rate:                64.7%
        GNP (per capita)        $2,790
 
Nicaragua was placed in a group of countries of "medium economic 
development," a group which includes:  Ecuador (68), Cuba (72), 
Paraguay (87), Peru (93),  Dominican Republic (96), Nicaragua (109), 
Guatemala (112),  Bolivia (113), El Salvador (115) and Honduras (116). 
(Barricada, August 18)
 
9.  Pedro Ortega Macho returns to Managua.
 
Workers at the La Fosforera match factory last week went to the 
Managua city court offices to demand that Pedro Ortega Macho, ex- 
President of the Board of Directors who has an warrant pending for 
charges of robbery and fraud, be arrested.  Ortega Macho, who had fled 
the country two days after charges were brought against him, 
apparently had been in El Salvador and took advantage of the commotion 
of the AVIATECA tragedy to return to Managua on the same flight that 
brought home the bodies of the Nicaraguan victims.


The judge who the workers stated that the arrest warrant was 
still valid and that a judgment would be handed down in the next 
several weeks.  If he is condemned, Ortega Macho could receive a 
prison sentence of between 12 and 20 years. (Barricada,  August 18)